Southy (or Southey) Littleton Savage (1831-1915) was born in New Kent County, Virginia, the son of Nathaniel L. (1806-1853) and Elizabeth Parkinson Savage (1808-1854). Nathaniel Savage was a planter; the 1850 U. S. Census values his real estate at $9500, and indicates that he held 24 slaves. Six children were living in the household in 1850; eighteen-year-old Southy, the oldest, is identified as a deputy sheriff. Savage married in 1853, and a son, Nathaniel, was born in 1854. By 1860 his wife had died, and he and his son were living at the New Kent home of a brother-in-law, Dr. Leonard C. Crump, the husband of Savage's sister Emily. Savage was mustered in to Company F, 3rd Virginia Cavalry on 28 June 1861, as 1st sergeant. He was promoted 2nd lieutenant on 15 February 1862, but resigned his commission several months later, on 25 April. At some subsequent point he was detailed to the Confederate Signal Corps, established on 19 April 1862 and attached to the Adjutant and Inspector-General's Department of the CS Army. The most familiar duty of Signal Corps personnel was to facilitate communication between commanders in the field, mainly by the use of signal flags (or "wig-wag"). But the Corps also had an intelligence function, including the maintenance of the so-called "Secret Line," an established route for the passing of information and personnel through enemy lines, between Richmond and Washington. The most hazardous part of this route was the crossing of the Potomac River, heavily patrolled by the Federals. The usual point of crossing was between the farms of two collaborators, Thomas A. Jones (on the Maryland side of the river, in Charles County) and Benjamin Grimes (on the Virginia side, in King George County). Though little is known of Savage's career in the Signal Corps, the content of his letter—written on 3 May 1864 to a sister in Richmond—is suggestive. After a few pleasantries Savage gives an account of his activities over the previous months, when the Army of Northern Virginia was in its winter entrenchments, south of the Rappahannock: I have been Stationed in King George Co. every since the Middle of January last. I had a delightful time I formd a great many acquaintances & they were all very kind to me, made me a great many presents such as socks, &c, they were constantly sending me something good to eat, which I stood in need of at times, for it was so very inconvenient for me to get my rations. I was a regular church attendant, I was stationed not far from St; Paul's Church where there was preaching every Sabbath. I was very sorry when I had to leave, I received orders a few days ago to report here . . . . The church which Savage so faithfully attended can only be St. Paul's Parish Church (Episcopal), located in King George County within a few miles of the Potomac and the Virginia terminus of the Secret Line. It is difficult to imagine why a Signal Corps operative would be stationed to this area, far from the army, if not for covert work—to assist with river crossings, perhaps, or to keep an eye on Federal traffic along the Potomac (there was in fact a signal camp in a swamp behind Benjamin Grimes's house). Savage apparently spent over three months along the Potomac, until being recalled just days before the writing of the letter, possibly in anticipation of a Federal offensive. (As it happens, the letter was written on the very eve of the greatest offensive of the war, Grant's Overland Campaign, which makes Savage's statement that "I have no war news to write you" seem somewhat ironic). Just where Savage was recalled to—where the letter was written from—is not entirely clear. The best guess is Port Royal, directly south of King George County on the Confederate side of the Rappahannock: the back of the letter's envelope bears the notation "Port Royal Va / May 4th"). Savage seems not to have prospered after the war. In the 1880 Federal census for Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, he is enumerated in the household of George Sadler, a Berryhill Township farmer by whom he was employed as a servant. He died in 1915.